


Precious Metal

by franki_stein



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: An Exploration of Show Pony as a Character, Entirely Too Many Uses of the Word 'Dipshit', Multi, Nonbinary Party Poison (Danger Days), The romance is only there towards the end, and some characters are only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:55:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22978732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/franki_stein/pseuds/franki_stein
Summary: In a war zone desert.....far far away.... there were four dumbass teenagers...this is how those bitches come together!
Relationships: Fun Ghoul/Party Poison (Danger Days)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Precious Metal

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: a lot of grammar mistakes, and colorful bad language. sorry in advance.
> 
> This started as a character study for the Four but here we are :) 15,000 words later :)
> 
> Edited 3-29-20: fixed some grammar shit and added some scenes

Party Poison and their brother have been in the zones since the beginning, right after the Analog Wars. One of the few groups to make it out before BLI tore down what they knew as civilization. They’ve known Dr. Death since those times, him and a few other older escapees taking in the younger ones and beginning to build what the resistance is today, the Killjoys.

The desert is unforgiving and the scenery around them is all they know of what was there before. Broken down buildings and dusted over roads. BLI had begun to build walls around their perfect city, leaving the rebels to the war zone.

There’s very little left, the groups of survivors finding blown up motels and shells of convenience stores to keep themselves in. Party Poison is barely seventeen, and Kobra Kid, their brother, is only a few years younger.

Dr. Death decides they are to stay with him, he gives them shelter and they scavenge for whatever is left of the forgotten wasteland they now call home. They didn’t have much time to gather supplies before the waves of drones were taking people from their homes.

BLI leaves them to their devices for a long enough time.

A year or two passes and the escapees have built something like a community. Someone who has the balls to sneak back in to the very place they’ve escaped has rallied a small few rebels into doing the same, they come back with government issued food and clean water that rebels still in the Slums help them get. People begin to rebuild what they can of the ruble. Dr. Death has set up a radio system with the help of his two young roomies. New rebels coming in every few days, the community is not so small anymore. It's almost hard to keep track of how many of them there are.

Not all of them stay in the zones, a lot of escapees decide to leave it all behind for good, running into the sunset with the city just getting smaller and smaller behind them. Most of them are just ghost stories now, no one knows what's out there. They either find something, and don't bother comin back, or they die out there, sun scorched and dry.

Poison and Kobra find themselves wandering around the desert often, finding shit to get up to was difficult when everyone knew who you were. Dr. Death and his friends were sort of the birth of this rebellion, and becoming his apprentices had come with some recognition.

They meet Jet Star completely on accident, running into him somewhere in one of the lower zones, the older rebels haven’t quite come up with a good system of location yet. Kobra is the first to see the man on his back, at first he thought he was dead. He assumed he was just another wavehead that he had come across too many times.

Kobra hadn’t had to witness too many dead people up close quite yet,Poison always jumping in front of direct action, and Poison couldn’t find it in themself to make him look as the older sibling walked closer to the body. They were surprised to find he was still alive, just seemed he passed out from heat exhaustion. Made sense, their bodies weren’t exactly acclimated to the unnatural radiation of the desert. Poison and Kobra lifted the man and somehow made it to Dr. Death’s hideout without passing out themselves.

Dr. Death calls in someone he used to know that could tend to wounds and they got the man water and for a few days it was a little rocky but in the end, Jet pulled through.

He had recently escaped the city, which was now called Battery. He had come to the desert by way of following one of the runners responsible for the rebel's food and water supply. He had helped him over the border, then told him to fuck off.

The Patrols has started. It completely took everyone in the zones off guard and Dr. Death barely escaped the first firefight with his life, his legs however, had not made it.

That’s when the Killjoys knew they needs to make weapons, or steal them. There was a small council type meeting that began pleasantly but ended with two Killjoys beating each other out of frustration. One decided it would be best to lay low, find places to hide and stay there whenever it seemed Draculoids were coming outside the walls. The other, much younger kid, had disagreed. This was a fight now, they made the first move so it’s their turn next.

Somewhere between the fists flying and the yelling of colorful curses, a voice stood out, “we’re all on the same side.”

A woman about the same age as Dr. D, hair curly and wild as tree leaves in the wind, had explained they were going to get nowhere with infighting. They had already seen so much damage, lost so many lives, the argument ended there.

That’s when the Zones were really cemented. The Killjoys in the outer zones stayed there. In these zones you were going to find workshops, bases, and underground safe houses. This is where most of the materials were found. You needed a can of Power Pup? You were going to find it there. You need a ray gun? They have plenty, if you have the payment. They build and create. In the lower zones, the one’s closest to the city that’s where you were going to find your fighters, the Killjoy soldiers on the front lines. They took out Drac patrols fast enough no one past Zone Three had even had to worry about drawing their ray guns.

Dr. D now had three young adults living with him in his makeshift radio station, it was a lot of mouths to feed and hard to do it with no legs. The three of them took care of themselves well enough however, and they took care of D too. No matter how much he would deny it. He grew to love those kids as his own and would saw off his remaining appendages to keep them safe. So when they all three tell him their moving to see if they can find somewhere to stay in Zone Two, he very nearly has a heart attack.

“I think the fuck not” He says, sunglasses that were ever resting on his nose hiding the emotion in his eyes.

Poison tried to talk him into letting them,

“Only for a few weeks,”

“Just wanna see what’s out there” and

“We’ll be totally safe.”

Dr. Death ends up sending them off with a two-way radio transmitter and fucking prayer.

It’s been a month since the kids left Death and they are having the time of their lives, sort of. They found a small, ratty, but empty shed somewhere on the border of Zone Two and Three. They go back to Dr. D’s often. Every few days they all go to check on him, but sometimes it’s just one of the boys, or Poison will come by themself. There’s a very old car sitting in the back of the station and Poison points it out to him one day while they look over the old shit in the yard behind the station.

“You kids come fix it up, it’s yours.”

Poison is delighted and finds themself begging the other two to help come up with a plan to get it running. They of course do and then they are at Dr. Death's radio station even more. Never staying the night however, always leaving before it starts to feel like they never moved out.

Jet finds a poster on the door of their shed one day coming back from the outer zones on a supply run and all but shoves it in Poison’s face.

“A fucking concert!!!!!!!! Dude we have to go!”

Poison begins to get just as excited and while Kobra is a bit hesitant (he really does not do crowds) he joins them.

Poison desperately wants to get all dressed up so they call one of Death’s friends to help them out wardrobe wise. Their names Show Pony and they gave out some pieces of their most prized outfits to Poison, in particular, a rad looking yellow face mask. They even say Poison can decorate it up some.

It starts off great, there’s sweaty bodies jumping up and down and strobe lights someone hijacked and somehow the disastrous DJing by Hot Chimp was able to be heard throughout the building of screaming 'Joys, which wasn’t quite that big. There were some holes in the ceiling and walls around them which allowed the freezing air of the desert inside to keep the mass amounts of body heat bearable.

Fun Ghoul had never seen anything like this in his LIFE and he was PUMPED and someone that he knew (distantly) on good terms had brought some homemade jungle juice which made his throat squeeze up and his eyes water but he drank it anyways and was feeling great. He was tired of sleeping under rocks and hiding away from the heat in abandoned corner stores that never seemed to have anything valuable in them. He was ready to tear up some tile, feel the electricity of scratched sound-makers reverberate through walls he'll never see again, forget everything else for a little while. He was having a fuckin' blast, up until, he elbowed Party Poison in the fucking eye.

They don’t get off to a great start, a fistfight breaks out between them and it isn’t until Kobra and Jet find them at each other’s throats and pull them off each other that they stop.

Poison's got a black eye and its safe to say Ghoul's got just as dark a bruise on his hand. Kobra leads Poison outside the venue, dust kicking up into the air as he marches his sibling to the side of the building. He takes Poison's face between his hands and when he's satisfied that it isn't too bad he pushes them off.

"The fuck was that Poison?? You tryna start a fight out here?"

Poison's face was bleeding and they were pissed beyond measure.

"That fucker definitely fuckin started it Kobra, he elbowed me in the face!"

Kobra sighed and shook his head, "Sit."

He pointed to the ground and Poison leaned against the wall trying to keep their head straight.

Kobra left to find Jet, they needed to get out of there.

He found him with the other guy, who looked worse than Poison. They were crowded into a corner near the door. The dude was definitely drunk.

"Bro it was a total accident I swear, fuck, that was a heavy fucking punch." He cradled his hand to his face and there was blood trickling down the side of his arm.

Jet sighed as he stared at the boy, "Let me see your hand dipshit."

The guy rolled his eyes but surprisingly let Jet take his hand in his.

"The fuck, did they bite you??"

Kobra couldn’t help but chuckle, Witch help anyone who crossed Party fucking Poison.

"I didn't mean to start a fucking fight, that prick was in my way."

Kobra saw Jet's eyebrows raise and Kobra couldn’t have a stranger talk about Poison like that so he stood a little closer to the stranger.

"You know you callin a prick?" He said daringly at the stranger's face. But the 'Joy didn't back down. Actually, now that Kobra was closer to him, he didn't exactly look like a Killjoy at all. He looked like he had been rolling around in dirt for days, like he hadn't seen a meal in a week.

Just because everyone knew who Poison ran with didn't make them untouchable. Dr. Death and his friends might have begun this revolution, but the ones that got to the desert a little late are still a part of it.

Jet broke the two up and put a hand on each of their chests.

"We don't need another fucking fight, we're leaving."

It isn't until they find Ghoul again about two weeks later, laid out on the top of Dr. D's dining table, (if you could really call it that) that they learn his name.

"He probably deserved it" Poison says under their breath as they look down at the man passed out. Show Pony tells Poison that they found him half dead outside of Zone Three, all beat to hell and what looked like blaster scorches in his clothes.

When he woke up, after about three days of Show Pony fixing him up, still unable to really move anywhere, he explained to them and Dr. Death that he had got into it with some Dracs with a group of other 'Joys but the Dracs kept coming and he had to get out while he could so he started running, that's when he got shot.

"You mean without a goddamn ray gun? You fought hand to hand with those fuckers?? Then you dragged yourself all the way to Zone Three? God kid you should be dust." Dr. Death so eloquently stated. Show Pony fussed over the blaster burn on his shoulder and called Jet on the radio. Pony knew about wounds, how to fix them up, but infection was something Jet knew more about.

Jet came over and didn't react to seeing the guy his friend got into it with all beat up. Poison had come back to the shed all stressed out and itching to get into some shit, Jet asked what was up and they told him about Ghoul being at Dr. D's. He looked worse now than at the party though, poor guy was bruised and in and out of consciousness even when Jet arrived.

Kobra was there later that day, putting wires and buttons into the Trans-Am, he stops by the dining table, stares at the guy passed out on it and almost feels bad. None of em deserve to get ghosted out there. They were all still so young.

Ghoul and Poison get into it again. Ghoul was sitting in with Death during a radio broadcast, after he promised D he was good to get up and move around. And afterwards, Poison showed up wanting to fix the car up some, they had noticed Ghoul messing with some radio shit and Poison told him to leave D’s shit alone and Ghoul got up and told them that if Poison had a problem with him being there they could work it out, bright eyes all angrily pointed at Poison, daring them to say anything at all. Poison glared for a few moments, chest getting all tight with frustration, they left the room before they threw a punch. Ghoul left that night.

“That fucking guy gets under my goddamn skin,” they said to Pony who tried to ask about why they were so rubbed the wrong way about Ghoul, from what they’ve experienced, he could be a decent guy. Pony worried about him being alone out in the Zones.

“He doesn’t even have his own ray gun Poison.”

“Well he would be so stupid to be out there without one."

Pony gave up.

Ghoul was found again, this time by Kobra, beat to shit just like before, at least he was mostly conscious this time. He mumbled when Kobra got down on his knees by the dude's head, asking what the fuck ran over him. Apparently he pissed off some older ‘Joy that he was going to trade with, saying he had insufficient funds which, he added hazily, was utter Droid shit. His blaster wound had gotten infected too, even with Jet’s care.

Kobra called Jet down to the outer zones to help him get Ghoul back to Dr. D’s where Pony had been staying for now, though it didn't seem they were moving out anytime soon.

“You gotta stop pissing the wrong people off man.” Kobra said to a half conscious Ghoul in the backseat of the barely running Trans-Am, they still had some work to do on it but they started the engine and got it back to Death’s in one piece.

Jet set to work on the infection, Pony assessed Ghoul's body and told Jet he was fighting off a fever and had two broken ribs, three broken fingers.

This time he was in and out for a good week. Kobra stayed at Dr. Death's until he woke up, sleeping on the couch, feeling sorta responsible because Poison’s the reason he left and he’s the one who found him this time.

Poison however felt close to nothing seeing the guy on D’s table once more, frustration the only thing being prominent.

Ghoul was up, this time he seemed to be in a better state, he talked to Pony about how he was feeling and they gave him some ointment to keep applying to the blaster wound and they wrapped his broken fingers.

He looked a little awkward sitting up right on the table when they finished and Pony sighed.

“What's got you lookin like a kicked droid?”

He chuckled at them before telling them he felt a little guilty for taking up room in the already small space, not to mention all their medicine they’ve used up on him.

“Might need it for someone important some day.”

Pony barely had it in them to keep from knocking the guy upside the head.

“You got just as much right to be alive as the next guy that ends up on this table, not the first and you definitely ain’t gonna be the last.”

He tried smiling at them and they can tell he’s thankful, even if he doesn't quite say it in so many words.

“I haven’t got anybody out there," he says and his face looked like he hadn't meant to. He continued though, shifting his shoulders and rubbing his injury, "fuck, you and Dr. D are the only faces I’ve seen more than once within a month.”

Pony’s heart sinks for Ghoul, no one should ever be out in the desert alone.

Just then Kobra enters the radio station and sees that Ghouls up. He slightly smiles and goes to stand by Pony.

“How ya feel dude?”

Ghoul looks at him with a hint of confusion but answers all the same,

“Like I got laid out by a Drac.”

Kobra chuckles and Ghoul still looks confused but Pony smiles looking between the both of them.

“Don't worry, I’ll be outta your way soon enough, right Pony?”

He looks hopeful and Pony’s expression turns sympathetic.

“You know you can hang round long as you need.” Ghoul sort of scowled,

“Maybe you wouldn’t mind but I got a good enough idea about who would.”

Kobra sighed and scratched the back of his neck, “Poison can deal, get well dude.”

Ghoul scoffed slightly and as if they knew they were being talked about, enter Party Poison with Death rolling in on their heels.

They avoid the man on the table and instead looked at their brother, “need your help with the Trans, when you get a sec.”

Kobra looked from Poison to Ghoul. Kobra himself feels like maybe if they both just apologized or some shit everyone would feel a lot better. Maybe the atmosphere wouldn’t feel so tight.

Death had a happy expression on his face seeing Ghoul awake and sitting up.

“Looks whose up and running again! Glad you’re not ghosted kid.”

Ghoul laughs, “give me another week you’ll have to resuscitate me again.” Dr. Death tilts his head, leaning forward in his chair,

“Maybe don’t make it habit, find somewhere more stable to stay insteada bein out on your own and just wandering, life’s dangerous out in the zones. Gotta stay alive.”

Poison leaves out the door, beckoning their brother to follow, Kobra does. But not without giving Ghoul a hand on his non-injured shoulder.

“I would if I could D, no ones really looking for another crew member that I know of.”

“Well shit kid, you know you got me and Pony here for ya. Stay long as ya need.”

Pony then gave Ghoul a look that said ‘told ya’.

So Ghoul stayed, for awhile at least. He helps around the station and hangs out with Pony when they’re around. They share the small room placed next to where Dr. Death makes his radio broadcasts. Whenever Ghoul heard a certain voice on the two-way radio though, he always makes up an excuse to leave before Poison gets there.

He’s out with Pony one day, them rolling around on their skates and he’s begging them to just slow down he can’t keep up! And they only reply with a cheeky look through their helmet and says something stupid about how fast is the only way to travel.

They come up on a trading post somewhere down in Zone Four, Pony talks with the man at the stand and they follow him back behind the post and discretely switch small packages into each other’s hands.

Pony comes back to Ghoul with a suspiciously wide grin.

“Guess what I just banked for us” they don’t give Ghoul a chance to reply before taking whatever was in the small bag out and showing it to him.

It’s a small rectangular box with pink outlining and Ghoul almost doesn’t recognize what the contents are but once he does his eyes grow wide and he makes to grab to box.

“How did you manage find those!” Pony yanks them back into the bag before giving Ghoul a wink and sets out on their skates.

“I’ll never telllll” they exaggeratedly sing as Ghoul manages to catch up to them.

“When are we gonna smoke them?” Ghoul excitedly asks and Pony only shushes him and puts a finger to their lips.

“You wanna get caught with this shit?? D would have my head if he knew! That old man cares way too much, and hears everything I swear to Destroya.”

They lead Ghoul to the top of an abandoned building closer to Death’s station. They’re both chuckling as Pony takes off their helmet and pulls the small bag back out.

The cigarettes are stale as fuck but Ghoul can’t find it in himself to really care. He hasn’t had one since before the blast. How many years ago that was, he can’t even really remember. He actually can't remember anything before waking up in the desert, alone. Doesn't even know how long he's been that way.

Ghoul doesn't think about it as him and Pony smoke and laugh. Ghoul feels a lightness in his chest he hasn’t felt in years, or ever really.

They get back to Death’s station and Ghoul almost immediately turns back on his heels as the sight of bright red hair behind the station, before Pony pulls him back and tells him he’s gotta face Poison at some point if they’re ever going to have peace.

Ghoul groans and complains the whole time Pony drags him through the front of the station and into the backyard.

It seems everyone was there. Jet, Kobra, and Dr. Death Defying are circled in the back of the station, Poison out there with them. They all have excited expressions and Ghoul notices that all of them are covered in what looked like paint, and that the Trans-Am looks completely different.

The used to be broken down car now covered in designs and painted symbols. It’s beautiful.

“Holy shit guys!! This looks fucking bangin!!” Pony yells to them rolling up to the car.

Poison looks particularly proud of themself.

“Pony wanna take it out for a drive?” they ask, eager to get behind the wheel and dirty it up good.

“Do white vans strike the fear of the Phoenix Witch in me?? Fuck yeah I do!”

The group chuckles and Kobra comes up to Ghoul, paint on his arms and hands,

“Looks good huh?” he asks, smiling from ear to fucking ear.

“It’s breathtaking man.”

Kobra steps closer, an odd look on his face.

“Don’t take this the wrong way but you fuckin smell weird.”

Ghouls taken aback before realizing that he definitely smells like the few cigarettes him and Pony shared.

Ghoul chuckled then shrugged and Kobra's odd expression doesn't go away. Jet comes up to the two, watching as Pony and Poison getting into the car.

The cars starts and Pony yells excitedly. They drive off, kicking up sand as they do so.

Within the next few days, Pony is helping Ghoul apply some ointment to his healing blaster wound and checking his ribs, making sure they've healed right.

“Can’t even feel it Pony, ya fixed me up good.”

“I can’t take all the credit, ya know Jet really saved your ass when you got that infection.”

Ghoul rolls his eyes unknowingly to Pony. Not that he's not thankful, just that whole crew would rather him not be there and he could feel it.

The door then opens to Dr. Death entering with the three recognizable Killjoys behind him. They’re talking is rushed and stressed and immediately the two in the kitchen area are aware of the tension.

“What’s goin on?” Pony asks and Ghoul is just as interested.

“There’s a clap down in Zone Two, these kids came here fast as they could, doesn’t look shiny Pony, doesn’t look shiny at all.”

Death rolls into the radio room and Kobra, Jet, and Poison all looked flushed and out of breath.

“You guys okay? What went down?” Pony asked, worry in their voice.

The three explain best they can and Poison keeps repeating that they have to go back.

“Never seen so many of em, came outta nowhere.”

Dr. D’s broadcast is heard from a room away, ever persistent in keeping information flowing, he warns everyone of the incoming white vans and for everyone to hold on to their helmets.

Poisons half way out the door again before Jet shuts the door and gets in front of them.

“You can’t go back Poison.”

“But they’re defenseless! No one out there is prepared.”

“Neither are we, we barely got out as it is.”

“There’s no way I'm letting everyone just get ghosted Jet, you gotta get out of my way.”

Poison looks mean, Ghouls never seen them look at anyone but himself like that. Chills you to the bone.

Jet scowls back, not moving.

Kobra sighs, “we can’t go back without manpower, that’s why we came here Poison, grab as much shit as you can, we’ll leave after.” he explains, pulling his sibling away from the door, trying to talk some sense into them.

“I'll go.”

Ghoul says it sincerely but is surprised when relief floods Kobra’s face.

Pony looks at Ghoul with a tight expression. They mull over what their about to say.

“I cant be letting you go out there without a fucking ray gun you fuck, and I'm coming too to watch your useless back.”

Ghouls sends a smile to Pony and they all gear up, finding whatever they could use to take down an army of Draculoids and packing it into the Trans-Am. Dr. Death can barely yell a “stay alive!” before they’re all speeding off to Zone Two.

The clap looks like it’s barely started when they reach the outskirts of Zone Two, Killjoys are firing blasters and Draculoids are firing back. It seemed there were even more now than when the three left.

They all jump out of the car, running straight into the firefight.

Ghoul barely knows how to work the fucking weapon in his hand and it takes Pony taking the risk of showing him a second before Kobra has to shoot a Drac down before Ghoul can shoot the damn thing. They all separate.

It seemed Poison, Kobra, and Jet had a system. Like they get into this shit often. They split off into the middle of the worst of it. Taking each side and taking down as many Dracs as possible. It looked a mess, Killjoys everywhere fighting for their lives. Ghouls been in firefights before, though he usually had to get out of them before he lost his head. This is nothing compared to his past though.

Ghoul follows Pony and decides it’s the best thing he could do. They’re back to back shouting and firing their ray guns, helping other Killjoys get back on their feet. Jet is down on the ground over a bleeding ‘Joy and Ghoul's fears assume that the kid's past saving.

Him and Pony move over to cover Jet and Ghoul takes down five Dracs at least on his side. He looks down at Jet, a hopeless look on his face as he tries to stop the bleeding.

It fills Ghoul with a new rage as he yells and shoots faster, taking down more black-and-whites. There's sand in his eyes and his arms are aching. He can tell Pony’s doing the same. Jet gets back on his feet breathing hard and his hands are shaking.

“Fuck!” he yells, taking his blaster into his hands once more and running over to where Ghoul sees Kobra is shooting and struggling to keep the Dracs at bay.

Pony doesn’t leave Ghoul's side except to take down a Drac by hand. Then Ghoul has gotten separated from them somehow and there’s barely any time for him to make any awareness of his surroundings before he feels himself being pushed to the ground, some other ‘Joy runs into him and it knocks him off his feet. He doesn’t recognize what’s over him before it’s too late. He sees a black haired mask and a stark white blaster and thinks _‘well fuck_ ’.

The blaster never gets a chance to shoot. Someone’s shot down the Drac and before Ghoul knows it Party Poison is giving him a hand up. Poison barely looks at him before turning and running towards whatever Drac they were planning on taking down next. Ghoul stares for a second, startled at what had just happened.

_Holy shit that prick just save my fucking life._

Pony is rolling to him, they’re sweaty and there’s blood on their knuckles and they look about ready to pass out.

Then they do.

Ghoul has barely enough time to catch them before they go down, carrying them bridal style and running fast as he can to the safety of the Trans-Am. Their skates heavy and knocking into Ghoul's side. He crouches on the other side of the car, taking off Pony's helmet and checking their vitals as if he has any fucking idea what he’s doing. He’s thoroughly fucking freaked and has half a mind to just get them into the Trans-Am and get them back to Dr. Death’s but then remembers the red head that just saved his life and he has to go back and get Jet over here. He can’t leave Pony like this. There’s so little time to do anything.

He risks looking above the car on the other side, it looks so much worse from afar, Killjoys and Dracs going down at the same rate. He has to get back out there. He looks back down at Pony and he can tell that they're breathing and there isn’t any open wounds that Ghoul can see. He looks above the car once more and spots Jet. He doesn’t really register what he’s doing before he gets up from his spot on the ground and runs fast as he can to the man shooting like there’s no tomorrow, and at this rate, there might not be.

He can barely talk through his labored breathing and it’s taking all his strength to stand there and shoot at Jet’s side.

“Pony’s down, needs your help, other side of Trans-Am” he gets out before Jet looks to him with a scared expression then takes off running towards where Ghoul left Pony. He wants to go back with him, make sure Pony makes it through this. He wouldn’t know what to do if his only friend got ghosted. He couldn’t think about that now though, there were Dracs surrounding him once more. However hopeful it might have sounded, the army had thinned out, and Ghoul can breathe as he notices the small difference made. He sees Kobra and Poison through the mess and hopes they’re holding up okay.

After it’s over, it feels as if a bomb had gone off. There’s no more Draculoids and it almost felt too good to be true. Everyone left stood like statues for a good minute, still alert, as if another van would pull up at any second. The Killjoys remaining start to drift off, to tend to their wounded, pack up and high tail it back to wherever they were going.

Poison finds Kobra in the crowd and they worriedly check him over for anything that could be wrong with him. Ghouls never seen a softer look on their face. Kobra looked like he too could pass out within the next moment and Ghoul makes it click that he hasn’t seen Jet or Pony come back into the fight.

He vaguely makes eye contact with Poison. He nods to them, they nod back. It’s a start, he thinks.

He runs to the Trans-Am thoughts swirling around his head, none of them good.

 _Fuck fuck fuck_ is all that comes to mind until he sees Pony sitting upright against the door of the car. Jet had a dirty and wet rag to their forehead and they just look like they were sleeping really. Ghoul collapses in front of them and can barely hold himself back from crushing them into a hug.

 _Huh, haven’t hugged anybody in awhile_ he thinks, _or ever had the urge to._

“They’re goin to make it.” Jet says sincerity in his face as he looks to Ghoul. Jet notices that he’s never seen so much emotion on the dude's face. He was glad he had someone to care about now. Jet wasn't sure if Ghoul had ever had anybody in the sands, before he got settled with Dr. Death. Jet settles for the thought that it's not his business.

Jet thinks about the first time he met Ghoul as he makes rounds in the battlefield. Helping where he can. Ghoul seemed alone then, Jet remembers the terrified look on his face when Jet pulled him from Poison. The fucker had some serious issues being alone in the desert so long, anybody would. Jet reigns his thoughts back into some kid's bicep he was bandaging up.

Ghoul just stares at an unconscious Pony until he gets back, not exactly sure what to do with himself.

Kobra and Poison come up to the car and everyone helps get Pony into the backseat, Jet and Ghoul get back there too. Pony's head rests on the window and their legs are on top of the two men’s laps. There are a few 'Joys following them on motorbikes, Jet promised to help someone who went down but not out. He's gonna save their life.

Poison drives fast and no one says a word. Pony regains consciousness halfway through the drive and Ghoul is the first to ask if anything hurts.

“Ima be aight Ghouls, chill your horses.” He laughs lightly and Pony puts their hand in Ghoul's, then leans their head back against the window again, promptly passing out once more.

Jet can tell Ghouls worried and explains they just need rest, by morning they’ll be at full tank. He sets his hand on Ghoul's shoulder, the uninjured one of course. He thinks about Ghoul some more during the rest of the ride. He didn't seem like such a bad guy to Jet, he can feel Poison's stare at them through the review mirror. Jet makes eye contact but can't really decipher what their glare means.

Once they’re back at D’s everyone is exhausted, dehydrated, and feels thoroughly fucked to hell.

Pony gets up from the car and walks wobbly to their tiny bedroom, Ghoul follows them to make sure they don’t fall in the process.

“Y’could lay down with me Ghoul, if you feel so inclined.” their words are slurred and the moment their head hits the pillow they’re out again.

Ghoul momentarily freaks out before deciding what they really need is water.

He walks back into the main room, Kobra has passed out on the raggedy couch placed in the room. Jet has a small crowd of Killjoys surrounding him and there's a body on the table that was moved from the kitchen. Ghoul can barely make out a head of striking purple hair in braids and Jet stitching a wound up. There's a girl, probably same age as Ghoul, maybe younger, there's tears in her eyes and she's crouched next to the person Jets working on. She's holding their hand, whispering things that Ghoul can't understand.

Dr. Death’s voice floats through the station as he broadcasts the end of the clap, telling the numbers of ghosted and injured and Ghoul wonders how Death knew all that before he did. He finds Poison in the kitchen area, washing their face with a wet cloth. Ghoul can see the stark difference in the dirt and clean skin.

“There any water in this place?” He asks them. They look startled at his words. It takes them a minute to answer, staring at Ghoul like this is the first time they’ve met. Ghoul thinks he should know if there's water, since he is the one sleeping here and all that. His brain can't quite comprehend that fact however, only really understanding things minute by minute. Poison's face is dripping water droplets into the rusty sink. 

“Check in the storage room.” is all they say.

Ghoul nods and turns, but then is struck with the idea he needed to thank Poison, for ya know, saving his life out there. He has to swallow his pride, and it’s a bit difficult but he turns back around. Slowly, as if the minutes were growing longer.

“Uh, I appreciate you havin my back, savin my ass and all that.”

Poison again looks at Ghoul with an expression that screams they’re fighting to keep what they really want to say in their mouth. They have to clear their throat awkwardly before they can say anything.

“Killjoys always save each other.” They say it like it was nothing, but Ghoul knows that Poison could just as easily let him die out there.

Ghoul lets them get away with it and starts towards the door that led to a small storage closet but before he can Poisons talking again.

“You did good, out there. Glad you came.”

Ghouls spikes his eyebrow at Poison.

“Sure.”

About a month passes, or what felt like a month, time felt different in the desert. Too fast or too slow but never exactly enough to keep up with.

Poison, Kobra, and Jet don’t visit the station as often, the excuse of the Trans-Am not there anymore and they’re all trying to keep up with what they’ve got going down at the shed.

When they do visit, Ghoul feels a little more comfortable around them, not feeling he has to find something to do in the zones to get away from Poison. They haven’t exactly had a conversation or anything since the end of the clap but it seems there’s enough respect between them to not feel so tense around each other.

Pony wants to go out. they’re itching to get all dressed up and into a mess. There’s supposed to be a party at a broken into garage and not many people know about it. Same DJ as last time. They talk to Ghoul first, telling him they’re forcing him to be their date. Ghoul rolls his eyes but ends up excited about it. Pony then goes to visit Kobra at the shed. The place is a total disaster, Pony wonders how they all live here without suffocating. They tell Kobra and he says he’ll try to get everyone to go. Pony brought them all outfits and was pretty proud of them.

They all end up at Death’s and Poisons driving the Trans-Am and before he can even say anything, Ponys dragging Ghoul into the backseat with them.

“Don’t worry” Pony whispers in Ghoul's ear, “I brought us little a treat” they shove the pink package of the leftover cigarettes from months ago into Ghoul's hand and he gets excited again and forgets to be nervous on the ride there.

Jet and Kobra find themselves nearest to Hot Chimp, she's set up on the floor and there's a singer with her just garbling non words into a makeshift microphone and the records are half scratched to hell but everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Pony and Ghoul are hanging in the back but Pony soon gets bored and they wanna dance.

Pony drags Ghoul out with them and they move their bodies around to some kind of beat they’ve made up in their heads but then Ghoul gets tired and decides to go lean against a wall.

He sees the red hair before he sees anything else. Poison comes up beside him. Features all dark but they’re sweaty and Ghoul can see the slight smile on their face.

“Feelin shiny?” he asks, and thinks Poison doesn’t hear him, or just plain ignores what he says until they nod.

“Feel great, maybe this time I won’t end up with a black eye” They laugh and it’s a real one, Ghouls surprised but laughs too.

“Don’t get too excited, some idiot just brought in a bowl of tampered volcanic pop, who knows what they put in that shit.”

They laugh again and Ghoul stares with a smile on his face. There’s a feeling in his chest he can’t quite pin point but it feels good. He looks at Poison and really takes in their features for maybe the first time. He’s blaming the jungle juice Pony made and dared everyone to drink on the way there. Ghoul makes a realization as he stares at Poison’s face in the dark lighting of the garage. Their cheek bones are high in their face and prominent and they’ve got really white teeth.

 _what the fuck_ he thinks to himself.

He shakes off the realization and Poisons looking at him weird.

“Ima find Pony.”

Poison laughs again, and god could they stop doing that? Ghouls having enough of a breakdown without taking into account how their laugh makes him feel.

“Good luck, saw em leaned up against some other ‘Joy, Witch knows where they’re headed now.”

Ghoul shrugged and thought about the pink package in his pocket. What the hell he thought,

“Wanna smoke?”

Poison makes a face.

“What?” they ask.

“Not supposed to tell nobody but Pony found some guy that used to have a tobacco farm, y'know, before.”

Poison mulls it over in their head.

“Fuck, why not?”

They step outside the sweaty garage and the night air is half past fucking freezing but Ghoul takes out the cigarettes and an old, rusty lighter.

“Y'sure they’re safe?” Poison asks, watching Ghoul light the first one.

“Didn’t die the last time so I guess they're alright.” He shrugs.

Poison looks hesitant but takes the package from Ghoul anyway. They sit down in the sand and the sounds from the garage are still heard outside.

They’re both quiet for awhile and Ghoul tries his damnedest to not stare at Poison for too long and tries even harder to not think about why he wants to, but then Poison starts talking.

“You good at fixin shit?” They ask.

Ghoul thinks about it, wonders why they ask but then answers,

“Yeah sorta, help out D when he can’t figure out the radio transmitter, sometimes the wires get all fucked.”

Poison takes a drag, and Ghoul watches as the smoke leaves their lips.

They don’t ask anything else.

Ghoul starts to speak,

“I uh, never really apologized for givin you a hard time that night.”

Poison scoffed and shook their head.

“You ain’t give me a hard time, you gave me a black eye scumbag.”

Ghoul can’t help it, there’s a small grin at the edge of his lips and he chuckles.

“You think it’s funny?” Poison asks, voice dark, but Ghoul can see the slight smile in their voice too.

“Dude, you fucking bit me, I think its hilarious.”

Poison does laugh with Ghoul this time. Ghoul blames the nicotine smoke this time when he looks at Poison and there’s the same feathery feeling in his chest.

God he hopes he can get that under control. He lights one of the few cigs left and registers how many are left.

"Shit, Pony'll literally have my head if I don’t leave them any."

Poison shrugs, "we can share that one." They say it nonchalantly and Ghoul feels anything but.

"Yeah, cool." He inhales the cigarette smoke and then moves his arm to hand it over to Poison.

Their fingers touch, only a split second, but Ghoul swears it was longer. He clears his throat.

"Wanna come down to the shed sometime?" Poison asks as smoke dances out between their lips.

Ghoul's mouth is dry but he finds it somewhere in his rat brain to register the question.

"What for?" He asks back, not that he wouldn't wanna spend more time with these fuckers, they have all saved his life at some point or another. He just wants to know why Poison, out of any of them, would want him there.

Poison passes back the cigarette.

"Jet's all twisted about this project he's workin on, needs some help but won't ask himself. Thought I'd do him the favor."

Ghoul laughs and blows out the smoke in his mouth.

"What kind of project?"

"Fuck, I don’t know, it’s got something to do with wires though. Know that much."

Ghoul shakes his head and there's a smile still on his face.

"Of course."

Poison looks to him,

"'Course what?"

"I'll come to the shed." Ghoul says seriously and him and Poison have made eye contact and Poisons not looking away so neither does Ghoul and he can't be for sure but there's a look in Poison's eyes. Something other than distaste or indifference.

Ghouls been over at the shed almost every few days. What Jet is working on is something for Dr. Death, it’s some sort of motored power appendage so he doesn't have to rely on the old wheelchair no more.

Ghoul finds Jet is a really nice guy. He likes him, they find stupid shit to talk about and no one has been able to make Ghoul laugh this hard since he met Pony. They work together on the energy powered legs and find they have many similar interests, and not just things to do with wires.

"You like to blow shit up too??" Jet asks, Ghoul replies with a smile on his face.

"How you think I made it out there on my own for so long? Explosives baby, explosives."

Poison has never been able to say they've been attracted to anyone. It's not a feeling they've ever had, never really had the chance to. Everything around them changed so quick, and at such a young age.

They're not even sure what they're feeling _is_ attraction. They just know when Ghoul is over at the shed, on the floor with Jet, rewiring or taking apart whatever the fuck they're creating, they find themself staring.

They try to find things to do _instead_ of stare, clean the Trans-Am, play cards with Kobra, go on supply runs that might not be totally necessary. Today, they're wiping down the car, it doesn't take nearly as much time as they wanted it to.

They walk into the shed and is surprised to see Ghoul still there, he usually leaves after him and Jet have worked themselves hard enough to sweat. Jet is handing him a can of the repulsive Power Pup that is all they have to eat and then plops down back on the ground of the shed. Jet looks to Poison as they enter the room.

"Yo you good? That's the fourth time you've cleaned that damn car." Jet means it as a joke, Poison knows that. Still rubs them the wrong way and they just glare. Ghoul turns to face Poison too.

"I'm fucking fine I just need somethin to do. I'm itching to get out of this goddamn shed."

Poison drops the bucket of semi-clean desert water and the rag they used by the door.

"I know what you mean, I love staying at D's but it gets fucking cramped." Ghoul says, opening the can of Power Pup, smelling the contents and then promptly setting it down.

"I'm sure you don't hate being cramped with Pony that much Ghoul." Jet says an eyebrows raised. Ghoul doesn’t understand what he means. He just looks at Jet with a confused look.

Poison sighs and finds themself very eager to leave.

"I'm goin to find Kobra dipshits."

Jet laughs and Poison leaves, Ghoul is twice as confused.

"What'd ya mean about Pony? I don't mind sharing a room with em but I need to breathe sometimes Jet."

Jet shrugs, "I just think it's nice you can find something like that out here, someone to care for in the midst of all the damage."

"I mean, yeah, I care about em, not anymore than D or you guys do though."

Ghoul still didn't quite get it but he felt something like embarrassment.

Jet looked at Ghoul, thinking about the words he was about to say. They've grown close in the past few weeks, he figures he wouldn’t be overstepping.

"You love them?" Jet asks

"The fuck that mean?" Ghoul shoots back, he didn't mean to sound defensive, just a fucking weird question to ask him.

Jet shrugged, "are you guys like a thing?"

"I still have no fucking clue what you're askin me Jet." Ghoul was beginning to have some sort of clue though.

Jet rolled his eyes, "whatever dude, you guys do what you want. Just thought it was nice, haven't seen a lot'a couples out here."

Something clicks in Ghoul's brain and he shakes his head. 

"Me and Pony are definitely not a fucking couple." He tells Jet. "I wouldn’t even know how to be in one'a those."

"Huh. Poison had been sure you guys were getting down and dirty." Jet says with a pensive look on his face.

Ghoul makes an appalled look, "oh no, nope, you both got the wrong idea. Sure, love Pony, but I could never- They're like a sibling or somethin man." He shakes his head and shivers at what the fuck would give anyone that disastrous idea.

Jet nods his head, "Right, Poisons been actin super weird recently anyways, dunno what their problem is."

Ghoul wonders what that means and finally tries to choke down the Power Pup.

Kobra and Poison are talking, about nothing really, Kobra's mentioning some new 'Joys he met down by the inner zones, sneaking in some materials and food. Poisons trying to listen, but they can't help their wondering thoughts. Kobra talks about one specifically for a long time and Poison doesn't really notice until he asks them, "have you ever uh, dated anyone? Y'know before the blast?"

Poison, shocked by the words, shakes their head slowly. Kobra has been by their side since he was born, you would think he would remember something like Poison having a significant other.

They're both sitting on oversized rocks somewhere between their shed and the beginning of Zone Three. Kobra's on his back, sunglasses only thing keeping the ball of radiation in the sky from burning his eyeballs out. Poison's sitting on the far end of the rock, swinging their legs off the edge.

"The fuck kinda question is that Kobes?" They ask and Kobras all quiet for a minute and Poison hopes that's the end of it.

Kobra shrugs and starts talking again, "You know that 'Joy Jet saved after that showdown with the Dracs?"

Poison nods, she had prominently purple hair in braids that started at her scalp, said her name was Ever Clear, she barely made it in the end. Had it not been for Jet, she woulda been ghosted. There was another girl by her side the entire time, said she was Ever's girlfriend, bubblegum pink hair shaped into a bob. Nobody really knew what to do with that information.

You only hear the older Killjoys ever talk about love. What it felt like, Poison can't remember ever having that feeling. They know they love their brother, they know they love their crew. Romantics were for Porno-droids anyways, Poison thought to themself.

For these girls though, shit was clear as day they were in love. Poison could only wonder why Kobra would bring them up, so they ask.

"Dunno, just might be nice to find somethin like that."

Poison sighs, "find someone you want it with?"

Kobra flips Poison off and Poison just laughs, "sincere question there Kid, what's got ya thinkin bout love?"

"Fuck off Party." Poison's head snaps to face their brother. Squinting hard at the motherfucker.

"I know you did not just fucking call me Party, you ass." Their brother sits up and only raises his eyebrows at them.

" _You_ started it fuckface, who fucking calls their own brother 'Kid'?" He says pissed off and grumpy, and then he leans back down.

Poison rolls their eyes. Kobra could be so dramatic. Poison shoves Kobra off the rock lightly enough he wouldn't be hurt and when they look at him, grumbling and dusting dirt off his jacket, they laugh so loud that the bone dry sands swirl up. Kobras mad for a split second before he grabs a handful of the hot sand and throws it at Poison, then he starts laughing. Poison yelps and scrambles to get themself off the rock. Kobra starts running and the wind swallows up his laughter as he does so. Poison smiles at their brother, less grumpy now that they've made their brother feel better.

Ghoul has no idea how it happens.

One minute he's totally fine, in the shed with Jet and Kobra. He's been hanging around with them while Ghouls here he notices, going off about this Killjoy he's met recently, and wants to become friends with. Apparently Poison doesn't like him, but Poison rarely likes anyone.

The next minute, Poison waltzes into the shed, sweaty as fuck, bright red hair sticking to their face, torn up tee shirt soaked through, and then they just plop down on the ground next to the three men. The audacity they had to lay their head closest to Ghoul's lap. And Ghoul just stares at their closed eyes and parted mouth, breath coming in and out. Jet's asking Poison what the fuck they got up to, Ghoul can barely hear anything outside his own heartbeat. Poison opens their eyes and Ghoul assumes they're answering Jet because their mouth is moving but they haven't taken their eyes off Ghoul and he knows he's staring and now They know he's staring but he doesn’t know what to do and-

"-Ghoul!"

He snaps out of it, looking over to where his name was called.

Ponys at the door of the shed, looking equally exhausted as Poison.

"Aye Pony, whatchu doin on this side of the tracks?" He asks, doing his damnedest to sound casual, maybe trying to hard because he can see Jet's odd look from where he's sitting. Pony's breathing hard and skates themself inside the shed and over to the small growing group.

They jab a pointed finger at Poison and sit next to Ghoul on his other side.

"This one wanted to race me all the fucking way from D's." They said in between labored breaths. They lean against Ghoul.

"Fuck you run fast." Pony whispers under their voice and Ghoul looks to Poison with wide eyes.

" _You ran_ here?" He asked incredulously.

"Half the time we weren't even racin, we walked bout halfway before decidin whoever got here last was droid shit." Poison says, sitting up also and deciding to lean against Ghoul as well. They have their back to Ghoul's side and their head is on his shoulder.

His brain short circuits and both Jet and Kobra are staring at Poison with mute surprise and Ghoul suddenly can't breathe with two sweaty human heats radiating onto him so he shrugs Pony off and asks Pony why they came.

"To come see you dipshit, D misses havin you 'round and I hate to say it but so do I." Pony smiles and bats their eyelashes at Ghoul and Ghoul rolls his eyes, after he told them about what Jet said to him they've been intolerable with the fake flirting. He's gonna hit em upside the head one day, just gotta muster the courage.

After what feels like hours, the groups finished talking Jet and Ghoul got excited about their mechanical appendages and how its almost finished and next they have another project planned, back and forth with the exact how's and why it'll work. Pony eventually grumbled at Ghoul that if they didn't leave now, the cold of the desert would lead them right to the Witch's door, and they decide to head back to Dr. D's station.

"I'll give ya a ride." Poison says peeling themself from the floor.

Ghouls surprised by Poison's sudden kindness, but he doesn't think it over too hard.

Ponys talking the entire time from the backseat and Ghoul can barely keep up with what they're saying, he keeps looking over at Poison. They've got one hand on the wheel and another around the stick shift. The suns setting in front of the car, the sunset colors aren't as bright in the city. That's what Ghoul loves the most out here. The colors. They reflect onto Poison's face and Ghoul has to catch his breath and shut his trap before he says something mad stupid.

Poison feels Ghoul staring, he's been doing it all goddamn day and Poison would be a liar if they said they weren't enjoying the fuck out of it. They don't know what's going through Ghoul's mind and maybe they just don't care, they like that he's looking. For whatever silly reason it may be.

Poison puts the Trans-Am in park and finally looks back at Ghoul. Pony's already jumped out the car and headed inside but not without smacking a kiss on Poison's cheek, thanking them for the ride. Ghoul sits with Poison's eyes on him. He should really just get out of the car.

"Thanks for the ride." Ghoul says, words dry as he tries to force them out of his mouth.

Poison only nods at the poor guy.

"Me and the guys have something cool planned tomorrow, y'should join." Poison finally says to him.

"And what is that?" Ghoul hesitates to ask, only because he's not too sure what Poison considers fun.

"We found some beat up gas station outside of Route Guano, wanna check it out, see if there's anythin interesting." Poison explains slowly.

Ghoul nods, "sure." Poison gives him a smile he can barely handle and he finally gets out of the car.

Fuck he needs a smoke.

They search through the old Dead Pegasus gas station, nothing of real worth. Poison finds a company jacket and swears it was meant for them. They put it on and its dusty, has rips in the armpits, and has definitely seen brighter days. Poison doesn't care though and it's the most excitable Ghoul has ever seen the Killjoy and it makes him feel something he's not quite ready to name.

Kobra has found a some old paint cans in the back of a storage closet and opens them to find some actually still have paint in them. Jet's found loads of old magazines and prays to the good witch above they're still readable. Ghoul ends up with a very old video game glove board.

They're driving back in the Trans-Am, Jet and Ghoul in the backseat talking back and forth about the mechanics of their next project. They want to build around the video game glove Ghoul found, give it power, something to take down Draculoids faster than a ray gun. Poison slows down at the sight of another broken down building, looks like what used to be a diner. Now looked fucking depressing.

Poison still pulls up however and everyone simultaneously decides to get out of the car. Poisons the first to enter and they check it out, blaster in hand, for any type of dangers. They let the rest follow them once they know it’s clear. They still haven’t taken off the disgusting Pegasus jacket. Kobra lifts the sunglasses covering his eyes to look round the place. Ghoul is pretty surprised at how empty it is

“We could live here.” Jet says, like it’s what everyone was thinking and only he had the will to say it out loud.

“Hasn’t been lived in for years, y’can totally tell. We could claim this, it’s so much bigger than the shed. We could space out, I bet we could each have a fucking room.” He goes on and Poisons halfway ignoring him as they search through the different doors of the place.

“Look, it’s even got a fuckin kitchen, I mean not that we’d use it but y’know we could store supplies there.”

Still no one responds to Jet's words and all of them are looking through each room now.

“A bathroom Poison, it has a bathroom, not sure we could use that either but it’s got one.” Jet says cheerily,

“There’s totally enough space for all four of us.”

That time, Poison strides through the room and gets up in Jet’s face. They raise their eyebrows.

“Four?” They ask Jet. 

“Why not?” Jet challenges.

Ghoul has the sudden realization they’re talking about him and catches Kobra staring at him, the dude shrugs. Ghouls eyes are wide as the two are now whispering heatedly and Ghoul walks over to some bin in the back of the kitchen to get away from it and is affronted by uncovering a horrendous mask under years of piled up dirty rags. It’s a monster mask, looks disgusting, he loves it.

“Yo guess what I found!” he enters the room talking to no one in particular but then no one answers him and he realizes he’s alone in the room. He hears distant shouts from inside a door so he finds himself sitting down into a booth and dusting off the mask he found.

Takes him cleaning the whole inside and out of the mask before the three Killjoys come out of whatever conference they were just having. Why would Jet even want him there? And why wouldn’t he ask Ghoul himself first?

Poison looks pissed and Jet equally so. Kobra has an unsurprisingly neutral face.

Really, Poison isn’t pissed, just terrified of what would happen to them if Ghoul started being around all the time. They would probably do something reckless and stupid and not thought out properly.

Ghoul tells Pony what happened that day when he sees them again. They share some smokes on a rooftop.

“They could be a good crew for ya Ghoulie, just promise you won’t leave me to rot here forever.” They sigh solemnly and leans their head against Ghoul’s shoulder.

“Y’know I’d never.”

Pony sighs again and takes a minute before saying what they do, “I know a secret,” they start and Ghouls lifts his head to look at them.

“What kinda secret?” Pony’s never really one to gossip, only ever about the unending mystery that surrounds Dr. D, they have tons of theories on who he was before the blast. All fun and games really.

“One I can’t share.” They pause, face screwed up, “but I really wish I could.”

“The fucks that mean Pony?” Ghoul asks, wondering why they would feel inclined to share that with him.

“All I’m asking is that’ya careful. Poisons got feelings too, even if they pretend not to.”

Ghoul has a crushing feeling in his chest, he ignores it. Instead, he shows Pony the monster mask he found and they’re instantly excited about it, begging him to put it on.

Kobra’s going to rip Poison's stupid hair out of their head if they scrub the Tran-Am down one more time today. He’s sick of them using the good water for it, they only have so much.

“I need you to tell me what’s up so you can stop using all our goddamn water supply on this fucking car.” He finally says from his spot on the sand.

“I’m fuckin stressed Kobes what do you wanna know?”

“Why’d the fuck you freak out so bad about Jet wantin Ghoul around full time?” the two hadn’t talked since that little argument. “I know y’guys didn’t start off great but I thought you were over that.”

“Jet didn’t talk to us about it first, now Ghoul probably assumes we’ll just let him in. We’re a crew Kobra, we talk bout this sorta shit before a decision is made.”

“I think you made it quite clear for Ghoul not to have any wishful thinkin when it came to you.” Kobra replied.

“Poor guys already droolin on the ground you step on." Kobra looks down at where his sibling is crouched in front of a tire, breathes hard before saying something totally stupid, then he does anyways,

"Weird how he looks up to you now.” Kobra says slowly, trying to gauge how Poison will react.

Poison scrubs the car harder, a particular sand spot driving them crazy. At this rate, they'll all have to repaint the damned thing.

“I’m a fucking inspiration.” They say, anger heated in their words.

Kobra rolls his eyes and feels frustration bubbling in his chest and bites his lip from sayin anything that might hurt Poison's feelings.

Kobra didn’t see anything wrong with Ghoul being one of them, he practically already was. He wasn't stupid though, he knew when something was wrong with Poison, and he also knew they weren't gonna actually get to talk about it until they were ready and came to him or Jet themself.

Ghoul was listening to Jet rant about how much Poison was aggravating him lately and Ghoul was really only halfway listening. Ghoul didn’t have much hope when it came being apart of a crew from the beginning, it didn’t bother him none that he probably wouldn’t be a part of this one either, at least, that's what he keeps telling himself. Ghoul asks Jet if they could just work on the glove. They decided once they finish it, it's going to Kobra.

It’s takes Poison approximately four days before they’ve stopped being mad at Jet. They explained to him the real reason they’ve been so uncomfortable with the thought of Ghoul living with them.

“Coulda just told me you dipshit.” Jet says lovingly and Poison chuckles but there’s a feeling in their chest that won’t go away.

“Dunno what the fuck is wrong with me, I can’t stand feelin this way.”

“Maybe just fuckin talk to em?” Jet replies.

“What would I do then huh? What good would that do?”

“Well first of all you’d get it off your chest, and second step, I see the way that man looks at ya honey, and it doesn’t look like he just wants a friendly hug.”

Poison made a face.

“Dunno how I would go about telling him.”

Jet rolls his eyes, “I can’t do everythin for ya, I'm glad you told me though. Still think we could use him around here.” He gets up but before he leaves he squeezes Poison's shoulder.

Ghoul was with Pony, them skating circles around him and they were making their way to the shed. Ghoul had some finishing touch ideas he wanted to run by Jet.

Pony makes it there before him and they’re all excitable as Poison opens the door and hugs them before letting them in. Poison then notices Ghoul and stops before telling something quietly to Pony, who looks from Poison to Ghoul, an unintelligible expression on their face.

Ghoul is only a few more steps from the door. Poison steps out from the shed and closes the door behind them.

As Ghoul approaches, Poisons staring at him and then tells him they need to talk.

Ghoul nods, “sure, what can I do for ya?”

Poison bites their lip and takes a deep breath.

“Wanna go for a drive?”

The wind is blowing sand into the open windows and onto Ghoul's face. The suns beginning to go down and the air is chilled. Poisons wearing that jacket they found at the gas station and Ghoul wonders how they got it so clean.

“Me and the boys are moving into the diner.” Poison says monotonically, staring ahead of them into the vast desert road. They haven’t slowed down since they started it, Ghoul has yet to know where they’re going.

“Good for you.” Is all Ghoul can say to that.

Poison takes a very long moment before saying what they do. They breathe and clench their fist around the steering wheel and finally take a look at Ghoul, whose looking at them like a kicked droid.

“I wouldn’t totally be against you movin in too, if you’d like.”

Ghouls not sure he registered what Poison said the right way.

“Are you fucking with me?” He asks, unsure of what else to say.

Poison sighed, "y'wanna be part of us or what?"

Poison looks back over to Ghoul, whose staring at them odd and Poison wishes they could slap that unfortunate confused look off his face.

"I-"

Ghoul wants to say yes, being a part of a crew would help him out so much in the long run, and maybe with them, he could make a difference. More than just helping with broadcasts and smoking with Pony. With these guys, he could be closer to the fight.

"Yeah, okay."

Poisons almost surprised he said yes. They let themself smile at Ghoul, and he smiles back.

They drive some more, not a single destination in mind. Poisons okay with the heavy silence floating through the Trans-Am but it’s making Ghoul antsy.

He decides to ask Poison why he thought him and Pony were a thing.

Poison looks startled at the question but shrugs, cool as ever, said that they just guessed with how Ghoul acted around them.

“Well your wrong, I care bout Pony, shit I'd probably die for em, but I don’t love them. Not like that.”

Poison takes this into consideration, not sure how else to react. They slow down the Trans-Am and look over at Ghoul.

Ghoul looks back, it’s like a staring match between rocks and neither knows what going through the other's head and Ghoul barely knows what’s going on inside _his_ head and Poison licks their lips and they’re trying not to stare at Ghoul’s and then Poison presses onto the gas once more.

 _Well that was weird,_ Ghoul thinks, ignoring the pounding of his heart in his chest.

The group of Killjoys are packing their shit from the shed, not that there’s too much to move around. Ghouls helping them out with the supplies and it doesn’t take long but the heat from the sun and the sand from the ground isn’t helping any.

Before he knows it, Ghouls putting his own shit into the Trans-Am, feels weird having anything at all to keep. Dr. Death and Pony are telling him goodbye and Pony surprises him with a hug. He tells them he’s gonna come around more often than not and to stop being dramatic, the diner’s closer than the shed was anyways.

The Killjoys get settled into their new spot, and within what feels like a week or so, they have some sort of system. Ghoul and Poison still dance around each other for what feels like months. Ghoul and Jet finish the legs for Dr. Death and when they go to give them to him, he about cries. It’s takes a few more tweaks here and there to get them working right but Dr. D is up for the first time in years. Pony’s real proud of both the boys for doing that for their D.

Kobra brings that ‘Joy he’s been hanging around for everyone to meet, the guy’s name is Cherri Cola and he’s oddly shy for someone out in the zones. Poison understands why Kobra likes him so much, dudes smokin'. He’s also one of the nicest people they’ve met out here. Everyone takes to liking him pretty easy.

Poison finds a lot of reasons to stay out of the diner, they drives around in the Trans-Am and only when the gas is almost empty is when they find themself crawling to a stop in front of the old diner.

Pony comes by when they can, skating over from Dr. Death’s station and talking everyone’s ears off. Ghoul loves when they visit because they always manage to have cigarettes and they don’t feel so bad smoking them here because Death’s not around.

One day, everyone finds themselves in the diner at the same time, which doesn’t happen too often. Jet and Ghoul are drawing out plans for their next disaster with some old crayons and a roll of paper towels they found. Kobra was sitting in one of the booths with Cherri by his side, they were comparing taste in music. Cherri was talking about the Mad Gear and Hot Chimp parties he went to and Kobra found that they actually went to a lot of the same ones.

"We met Ghoul at one of those parties." Kobra tells him and Ghoul pleads to not relay the story to the stranger.

Kobra tells him anyways and Poison hears the story being told and comes out of whatever room they were hiding in and stood by the booth, adding in details that definitely weren't true.

"You did not break any of my bones, crotch box, you did fucking bite me though." Ghoul says from his spot on the floor next to Jet, who is laughing so hard there's tears in his eyes.

Poison gets a look on their face as they make eye contact with Ghoul, who has a crayon pointed at them.

"You were totally into it." Poison says with a smile on their face and everyone is laughing but Ghouls just staring at Poison, face blank and heart in his throat.

"You're the one that keeps bringing it up so I assume y'think about it a lot" They defend.

Ghoul rolls his eyes instead of responding and looks back down at the forgotten plans. Poison moves to sit next to him on the floor, in between him and Jet. Once Cherri can stop laughing, he mentions there's another concert tonight, everyone says it's gonna be a banger.

"I'm definitely going with ya." Kobra says to Cola with a smile that reaches his eyes, Jet mentions wanting to come too.

"You in Ghoul?" Jet asks from the other side of Poison, who looks to him for an answer as well.

"Sure, I'll ask Pony if they wanna come."

"How bout you Poison?" Jet asks next, Poison shrugs.

"Guess someone's gotta look after you fuckwits."

The night starts out fun, kids guzzling down Neptune Pop faster than they could open it and Mad Gear is blaring something for the heavens. There's lights and dancing and someone's already started a fight but thank the witch someone else ended it.

Everyone’s got masks on, was the theme of the night. Poison thinks they can see Ever Clear and her girlfriend, Pink Lady, somewhere in the crowd but can only tell by the stark pink and purple hair behind masks. Jet and Kobra are dancing somewhere near Cola, closest to the DJ.

Poisons half way through with what they think is their fourth pop but could be their sixth. Leaning against the wall of the building, they watch. Ghoul is what Poison assumes is what he considers dancing with Pony at his side and they both have freaky masks on, Ghouls got that monster one he found at the diner. Pony wearing their signature helmet.

Poison can't stop looking at Ghoul, they try, really. But for some reason their eyes keep traveling back to the man with sweat dripping off the ends of his hair, light casting shadows on his mask and his clothes. They could see his hair behind the mask and its greasy and looks gross but Poison likes it. They watch him move his body to the nonsensical music and the fact that he can even find some sort of beat among the noise makes Poison like him more.

Poison wants to see what his hair feels like, they find. Not a new thought but definitely one they've been trying hard to fight. Can't be a very charming feel but Poison wants it all the same. They wanna know what his skin feels like too, not in a weird way, well, maybe in a weird way.

Poisons so caught up in their thoughts. But they notice when something feels wrong. They feel the rumbling of grumbling tires on the ground, could have been twenty of them.

Someone screams "Dracoloids!!!"

Someone else screams to inform everyone there's Scarecrow chaperones with them too. A new addition to the terrifying ordeal of patrols. Everyone's running around, Mad Gear now out of sight and Poisons dropped their drink.

There's tables being turned over and people exiting as fast as they can. Poison reaches for their ray gun and makes to find their crew.

That's when the shoot out starts.

It's an all out firefight, Dracs and Killjoys head to head, or blaster to blaster.

Poisons shooting at whatever they can aim at, while also gathering in the scene around them. They search the crowd for Kobra, Jet, any of them.

They see a head of bleached hair back to back with Jet's curly head and starts towards them. They fight through the crowd and they're pushing 'Joys out of the way, shooting Dracs in the head. They have to get to them.

At the shout of their name, Poison stops in their tracks, they vaguely see a black and white mask in front of them but only momentarily as the Drac goes down. Then, in slow motion, Poison realizes that Ghoul has collapsed onto the ground by their feet.

They're shocked still and hope to the witch that he's still breathing as they hurry to crouch next to his body. He's groaning and holding his stomach and there's blood and blaster scorches on his clothes. Poison can't move, all they can do is stare with wide eyes, open mouth. Ghoul groans and makes eye contact with Poison, then promptly passes out, and Poisons scared shitless.

Kobras by their side in an instant and he's shouting something Poison can't comprehend because they're still watching Ghoul bleed out in front of them and they reach to touch his wound but their hand is shaking and suddenly Jet is helping them up by the shoulder. Ghoul is being picked up by Cola and Kobra and Poison sees his masked head lull to the side. Everything is hazy and Poison can't see straight, they can't feel the mask on their face or the gun in their hand. They feel like liquid, as if they got shot too. They follow whoever is leading them blindly through the rough of the firefight.

Pony is helping Jet keep Poison upright and they make it out a back way of the building and there's still shooting and screaming and all Poison is doing is sitting in the backseat of the Trans-Am as Jet drives to Death's, Ghoul's head in their lap, eyes closed and breathing labored.

_Oh god, what if he died?_

Pony is shouting at Jet to go faster from beside Poison, their hands on Ghoul's stomach that’s bleeding through and _fuck there's so much blood._

Kobra who's in the passenger seat turns to look at Poison.

"He's gonna be fine Poison, snap back, you gotta focus." Poisons trying to listen and hear what their brother is saying, he's talking to them slowly and just then Poison realizes their brother has out a ray gun, and Cola has been hanging out of the window on the other side of the backseat the entire ride.

"Some Dracs have followed us, you have to help shoot em out."

Poison nods and the hazy feeling over their head lessens as they pull out their ray gun. They look down at Ghoul's head. This stupid motherfucker better make it out of this alive.

They shoot down the white vans that are following them and they make sure none make it past Zone Two. They make it to Dr. Death's and Poisons all fucked over Ghoul again. Their legs barely hold them up as they watch their crewmembers flood into Death's station. They follow who ever is carrying him into Pony's room where there is medical supplies galore. There's a sinking feeling in Poison saying he's not gonna make it this time, there's no way.

Pony and Jet are tearing off Ghoul's shirt and mask and trying to stop the bleeding. It could have definitely been worse, usually a blaster wound like that would have you ghosted flat. But Ghoul had some extra layers and worse, it seemed nothing could kill this fucker.

Still, they work fast on applying whatever medicine is necessary and bandaging. Poison can vaguely hear their brother's voice talking to Death about the firefight as they watch silently the way Ghoul's eyes are moving under his eyelids. They're still standing at the edge of the bedroom, unmoving and unhelpful, arms hanging by their side and staring at the scene before them. They wished they could move but they just stood there, something like worry so deep rooted in their chest it was beginning to burn.

Pony stitches him up quickly but stays at his side through the night, next to Poison. They brought them over to sit on the chair after Jet left to get cleaned up. They both look down at the man and Pony reaches to take Poison's hand in theirs. They move to look at Poison and take a deep breath.

"He's gonna be shiny by mornin." They smile sympathetically and Poison nods back.

It takes Ghoul about forty more hours to be awake. Poison hasn’t moved from their spot in the room.

They don’t understand why they can't leave but they've got some words to be said when Ghoul wakes up, and they don't have anywhere else to be. It’s like they’re stuck to the chair under them, forced to tap their foot on the ground and watch the sleeping man on the bed.

Pony comes in and out, watching as the blaster wound heals and applying what's needed to it. They explain that he lost a lot of blood, his body's just healing itself and that's why he hasn't woke up yet. Ghoul's passed out face is a lot more calm than his face when he's awake. Poison hates it, they don't wanna have to look at this face any longer than they have to. They want him to wake up, and soon.

They argue with themself in their head, they were so useless in the firefight. They've never just not fought. They're always head-in-the-game during something so dangerous. They didn't even notice when there was a Draculoid right in front of them. Why did they freeze? How could they do that when everyone was in danger? When _Kobra_ was in danger?

Poison felt bile in the back of their throat as their leg bounced up and down and they could see the outside hallway from the corner of their eye and someone walking in to sit beside them.

"Have you left this room yet Poison?" Their brother's voice rings out through all the mud in their head and they turn to look at Kobra's face. It's cleaned up from the fight and he's changed clothes. Poison realizes they have lost track of time.

"I'm sorry." Poison says, so low that they weren't sure Kobra heard them. But of course he did.

Kobra sighs, shakes his head, and puts a hand on Poison's arm. They're still covered in dust and Ghoul's blood and Poison finally sees the bowl of water that Kobra's brought in with him. Kobra reaches for a wet cloth and pulls on Poison's sleeve a bit.

Poison lets him take off the Pegasus jacket and he begins to rub the cloth on Poison's hands. Poison doesn't look at him. Instead, they stare at Kobra's actions.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. We were all surprised that it started. None of us were really prepared." Kobra talks sternly, and Poison listens to him. It takes him three times of washing off Poison's hands and rinsing out the cloth to fully get the blood removed. They're still red but Kobra decides it will have to do.

"I could have done more, I can't believe I just froze up." Poison shakes their head at themself as Kobra begins to wipe down his upper arms. He scoots closer to his sibling and squeezes their arm comfortingly. He chews on his cheek trying to decide on what to say. He moves on from Poison's arms to their neck.

"It happens." Is all Kobra can find in himself to say. Poison's looking at the man on the bed and when Kobra says it, he sees it wasn't what Poison wanted to hear. They wanted Kobra to be mad, to tell them to stop being so stupid. But Kobra knows better, Poison just wanted a fight to deal with their feelings. Kobra wasn't having it, they can throw fists at each other later, Poison needed him to talk them through this right now.

They're quiet for a moment, Kobra washing off the grime from his sibling's skin. Kobra gets to their face, slowly moving the wash cloth over Poison's cheeks. They make eye contact and Kobra swallows the lump in his throat.

"You're allowed to like him you know." Kobra says, biting down the urge to yell at his useless sibling.

Poison's breath falls out of their mouth and they reach for Kobra's hand that rests on their cheek.

"How am I supposed to believe that?" They say, voice rough and broken. Kobra can't help but hurt for them, they are so lost in this fight. Everything has always been about surviving, fighting, sticking their middle fingers to BLI and everyone who works for them. It was so easy to go in, ray guns blazing, not caring if you live or die as long as you were doing the opposite of what was told to you. That's always been it for them two.

There are tears in both of their eyes, Kobras realizing Poison's scared of their feelings, Poison's realizing their brother is so much smarter than them.

"You are one dumb mother fucker, y'know that?" Kobra says, putting the cloth down and laughing though his tears are finally falling.

Poison's are too, and they huff a laugh from their throat and their chest feels lighter.

Kobra brings Poison's face back to him, and smiles at his big sibling, his caretaker and leader, his best friend and right hand in fights. They're so worried about all these feelings that are happening to them and Kobra can see it.

"You gotta just let this happen, no fighting it anymore. You're allowed to have this." Kobra says seriously while still holding onto Poison. Poison avoids looking straight at him but nods all the same.

"Thanks brother." Poison takes a deep breath.

"Anytime fuckwit, but next time you sit in dirt and blood for two days, Jet's cleanin you up." Poison laughs as their little brother leaves them alone in the room. Poison stares at Ghoul, who is snoring just a little bit. Poison can't believe it, but the sound soothes the burn of worry in their chest, if only slightly.

When he finally wakes, Ghouls startled and Pony has to come in and calm him down and Poisons by his side too and they both explain what happened.

Its then, while Pony's relaying the story of how they made it back to Death's that Poison realizes why they can't leave Ghoul's side, why they freaked so bad when he went down, why it seemed time stopped and their body wouldn't work.

Ghoul saved their life.

And Poison's pissed as fire about it.

"The fuck were you thinking?" Poison suddenly says, stopping Pony in the middle of their sentence, frustration obvious in their voice.

Pony turns silent and raises their eyebrows, "I think I'm gonna getcha some more water." they say to Ghoul and with that, is out of the room. Poison nor Ghoul have looked away from each other and Ghoul tries sitting up.

"Had to do something." Ghoul states, as if it were that easy to jump in front of a Drac's ray gun for just anybody.

"Y'coulda got ghosted Ghoul! what kind of useless fuck-" They were too frustrated to speak coherently, or quietly.

"You were going to fucking die! You wanted me to just let it happen?"

Poisons shocked silent when Ghoul shouts back, Poison gets up to pace beside Ghoul's place on the bed.

"Still, coulda done anything else, shout for me, warn me, you didn’t haveta get fucking shot for me dumbass!" Poison stopped pacing by Ghoul's side to stare down at the man.

"I have halfa mind to leave you here, that's how fucked I am over this, if you gotchyourself ghosted-"

"What Poison?" Ghoul stops Poison short and the man sighs, "what woulda happened?" Ghoul snapped, he sounded sorry for himself, which was something Poison never heard out of him before.

Poison sits in front of Ghoul on the bed, slowly. They're still frustrated, heart pumping loud in their chest and they're hands are trembling from nerves or anger or whatever wack feeling they're experiencing currently. But they look at Ghoul, eyebrows creased and irritation written clearly in his expression and Poison thinks Ghouls just staring back as a similar look and he looks tired and beautiful and Poisons gonna kiss the fucker.

So they do. They grab Ghoul's face and lean right in, lips are touching lips and its fucking weird and Poison doesn't hate it but leans back just as fast. They're breathing hard and it wasn't an intense kiss by any means but it still was a surprise for both of them.

"Bastard." They whisper under their breath before promptly leaving the room.

Ghoul sits with a stunned look on his face and an ache in his ribs.

A week or so and Ghouls wound is somewhat healed, he’s able to get up and walk around. There’s a scar from the first one he got, and he compares it to the new one with Pony who shakes their head and rolls their eyes.

"Too many scars Ghoul, y'gotta be more careful."

"Eh, one or two more won't ghost me."

“Y’talkin to Poison yet?”

Pony doesn’t know what happened after they left the room but they can tell it’s fucked the both of them up good as they haven’t seen Poison since then.

Ghoul shakes his head and shrugs, “They’ve better things to get up to. M’sure there’s lot going on after that clap.” he says while rummaging around in the kitchen area.

Pony nods and moves closer to Ghoul.

“They care bout you y'know. Hard to tell, but they care, lot more than they lead on.”

Pony remembers the two on their race from Dr. Death's to the shed, felt like months ago. Poison got all scrambled about asking if Ghoul and them were a _couple_. Pony laughed at them and then asked why they cared. Poison then went quiet and Pony connected the dots themself, and when they confronted Poison about their feelings, they ran faster than god's revolver towards the shed.

Ghoul rolls his eyes. He hasn’t really processed what happened between them and he’d rather not. Probably a mistake. No hopes for that kinda shit in the desert.

Kobra and Cola have been hanging round the station with Death since they got here after the clap, they’re all talking about what happened and how people were taking the masks off those who got ghosted and putting them in the mailbox. Seemed an interesting way to mourn.

The Pheonix Witch was a legend, a story people have been telling kids since before the blast. Out here, there’s only so much you can believe in, but if the Pheonix Witch comes for you, and you haven’t doubted her, it’s a good day in the desert. 

A few more days pass before Jet comes to take Ghoul back to the diner. Ghouls been hesitant to go back, Poison hasn’t come to see him since what happened.

Jet shows up in the Trans-Am and Kobra and Cola jump into the backseat and Ghoul climbs in after them. Everyone is chatting on the way, not a long drive but enough wind in the air to drown them out. They’re talking about how the recent firefight with the Draculoids has raised fire in some Killjoys, they wanna do something about it. Ghoul thinks about how close he and Poison were to being _normal_ around each other, a little progress here and there to find some similarity to being _friends_. Poisons ruined all that and got everything all weird again.

Ghoul barely had enough time to lay out on top of one of the booths inside before Poison pulls him off, dragging him to their room and shutting the door behind them. The rest of the crew stunned still in a group near the kitchen, watching the two disappear behind Poison’s door.

"The fuck was that?" Ghoul exclaims, hand on his wounded stomach.

"Need to talk." Poison says, looking at Ghoul's stomach where he's holding it.

"You okay?" Poison asks softly. Ghoul looks up with confusion to Poison.

"No the fuck I'm not. I need ya to talk to me, no fairyshit." Ghoul says, Poison's back still against the door and Ghoul's all heated like radiation and Poison, for the first time maybe ever since they've been in the zones, feels nervous. They didn't wanna fuck this up. That's why they've been avoiding it for so damn long.

"Meant to apologize, didn't mean to kiss ya without permission." Poison says after a deep breath. They're both staring at each other like whatever comes out of their mouth next is gonna define the future.

"You did wanna kiss me though?" Ghoul asks, "Not some attempt to just keep me going?"

Poison looks confused but doesn’t look away, their heart hasn't beat this fast since they saw Ghoul go down.

"Nothin like that."

Ghoul takes this into consideration and his face smooths out a little, anger not so prominent. His jaw is still clenched and his chest is raising quickly. Poison almost allows their hand to reach out for Ghoul. They look down at the bandage on his stomach.

"Does it hurt?" They ask, lump in their throat.

Ghoul shakes his head slowly, "the one to my shoulder hurt worse."

Poison makes a sound in the back of their throat.

"You're one stupid shit magnet y'know that?"' Poison says and Ghoul might have chuckled a little bit.

Poison chances a step closer to Ghoul, and when he doesn't step away, Poison puts a hand on his cheek.

"M'gonna kiss you again." Poison says, looking into Ghoul's wide eyes and he nods barely before Poison leans down to touch their lips together. Poison's careful not to touch his stomach but places their other hand on Ghoul's hip.

Ghoul moves to put his hands on Poison too.

This kiss is slower than the first one, longer too. Not rushed and a split second decision. But sure in its movements and this might ruin everything, maybe this is the start of something disastrous, but neither of them care.

They don't really explain anything to anybody. Days go on and they sit close together in the booths and talk with hushed voices and sleep in the same room eventually, on a dingy mattress with tattered sheets and Poison tells Kobra he just keeps them warm.

Jet and Cola have their theories about what the fuck is going on but they don't confront them. Kobra usually just stays quiet and looks bored, always changing the conversation as if this was old news to him. Jet, unable to contain curiosity, asks what's going on between them one day while helping rewrap Ghoul's stomach and Ghoul just hums and shrugs,

"Like the way they smell."

Jet and Kobra are watching them from the other side of the diner, Kobra sat up on top of the counter top in front of what used to be a kitchen and Jet's leaning against it beside him. Ghoul and Poison are practically on top of each other in one of the booths and they're not necessarily _giggling,_ no, that would be way too weird. But they're talking about something that's making them laugh.

"Bro," Kobra says under his breath,

"No dude, _I know."_ Jet says back

Both of them stare at the two, totally dumfounded.

"Never seen Poison act like this." Kobra's ecstatic about it really.

"At least they're happy?" Jet tilts his head.

It's been a couple of months, the Killjoys are top of the Scarecrow's wanted list now, all the shit they've got up to in so little time. Ghoul and Jet have set off bombs in BLI's main building like three times now and Poison's gone toe to toe with their lead Scarecrow, a recruit named Korse. Kobra has been able to show off his karate skills to anybody that gets too close. Dr. D's scared shitless for their lives but he knows somebody's gotta do it, no one better than those four.

BLI's not the only ones who notice them, Killjoys start calling them the Fabulous Four, Poison absolutely adores it, the rest of their crew deals with it all the same. 

One day Pony comes around to give Jet some medical supplies that he needs and they check out Ghoul's scar to make sure its healed properly they don't _not_ notice the way Ghouls staring at Poison from across the diner, who is talkin to Cola who came around with an idea he wanted to bring up with Poison, said he came up with it with Dr. D.

D has been letting Cola take over sometimes during broadcasts, a voice among masses with poems and calls to the tumbleweeds that cover the desert, anybody that'll listen.

Kobra makes sure to always have their radio on when its airing. Poisons warming up to the guy, doesn't think he's perfect or anything but they wanna like em.

Cola wants to have a meeting, with as many 'Joys as possible. He wants to bring them together somehow. The patrols have scared people, but there's hope and he wants to show the masses. He's gonna call it a Mask Meeting and no one has to show their face, just their colors.

Poison likes the idea but Cola's not finished, he asks them if they could speak, not like a speech or anything, just some words floating into the heads of the new guys, the ones that haven't been out here as long as them and their brother have.

Poisons gotta think about it but they wanna do it. Cola thanks them and tells them to not forget their masks!!

There's a broadcast from Dr. D's later that day,

"Alright Dust Darlins, we need your help, strap up your boots and put on some paints, there's a call to arms, a call to colors, it's time to scare the 'crows outta the sky and show BLI what we've got."

Dr. D's voice floats through the diner as the patrons inside scatter around, looking for anything to cover their faces.

Poisons got on the yellow mask from Mad Gear's last party, they've added some glam to the thing, blue sequins to match their Dead Pegasus jacket. They've added some stitching to that as well, painted on a symbol they came up with, with help from the guys, they quite like it. Fun Ghoul's got his monster mask, that he liked to call Frankenstein, found some military jacket awhile back he liked, totally destroyed the sleeves, sayin they itched in the heat of the desert.

Kobra Kid's got an old helmet Pony let him paint up, he made it look wild with a cartoon face over yellow paint that he found in that old store, and painted the words "good luck" over the visor, no one knows how the fuck he sees through it though. Jet Star paints a flag that's been out of use since before the Analog Wars onto the back of a leather jacket that’s way too hot to wear during the day, but he likes the looks of it. There's a gas helmet he picked up sometime in the outer zones on a water run, paints it just like Poison paints their mask, and Kobra paints his helmet.

Poisons stitched a symbol into Kobra's red jacket, a cobra face and Kobra thanks them for it. Poison draws out more symbols for the guys. They take special care in making them all look very shiny.

They get to the meeting with masks on their faces. There's more 'Joys there than Poisons seen at DJ Hot Chimp parties. They've scattered around what Killjoys have been calling 'The Nest'. It’s a shell of an old Giant Droid, something from the wars. Poison hasn't seen the thing since them and their crew moved to the lower zones.

Poison moves through the crowd of 'Joys, all looking at them with their crew right behind them. They make their way to the top of the head, Dr. Death standing in his robot legs next to Cola and Pony, they've all got somethin to cover their face.

Cola's got on a mask that resembles Poisons, Kobra and them helped him paint it. Dr. D's only got his signature sunglasses but it does the job. Pony's never anywhere without their helmet. Once Poison and their boys have made it to the top, standing next to the three, they look out into the crowd. Poison's heart is beating real loud in their chest, feels like bombs goin off.

The air tastes like radiation and their head is fuzzy with the heat. They guess Cola and D are introducing them to the crowd, they look at the faces below them. Feels wrong to look down. They sit with their legs out in front of them, closer to the 'Joys.

They make out Ever Clear in the crowd, her and her girlfriend smiling brightly at them behind masks colorful as their hair. Poison waves a hello. They wave back.

"Hey Poison, y'wanna say somethin?" Dr. D asks from behind them and they shrug.

"M'no different than any of em in that crowd, they've got just as much right to say somethin as I do."

D smirks at them and nods. He starts speaking to the crowd, all poems and cryptic signals.

"We've got one job out here in the heat, and that’s to stay alive." He starts and Poison feels someone sit next to them and is relieved when they notice its Ghoul, he's pulled off his mask only halfway so Poison can see his smile.

"BLI ain't ever gonna leave us alone, always sending black and whites to our home." D continues.

"Y'good?" Ghoul asks, putting his hand close to Poison's, they take the hint and lace their fingers together, they're still staring out into the masked faces in front of them.

"Scared, is all." Ghouls squeezes their hand once.

"There's meaning to our cover, color that never runs dry." D's voice is barely heard to Poison, but they can tell everyone on the grounds eating it up like sun burnt chocolate.

"We all are, we need someone like you to rise above the noise, someone whose gonna lead us."

Poison looks to Ghoul and there's a calm look on his face, a look Poison doesn't see so often and it releases something in their chest.

"You guys sure it should be me?"

Ghoul just smiles and leans in to rest his head on Poisons shoulder.

"One thing I know for sure, sunshines," Dr. D's voice declares,

"Killjoys never die."

**Author's Note:**

> I don't include the Girl in this story, mainly because my little headcanon is that they find her after being a crew for a little bit, and this is how they became one. If you'd like to see my version of how they meet the girl let me know! I'd be happy to write it out. :)  
> Also, I apologize for the writing style change at the beginning, I wanted to focus on how each of the Killjoys meet each other in detail but I ended up being a lot more in depth with Fun Ghoul's story line and not many other's.


End file.
